Fast Restoration

Another advantage of making differential backups is quick data restoration in case of a disaster. Unlike incremental backups which need to go through the entire chain from the last to the first backup, restoration of differential backups is done in two steps, using the most recent full and the most recent differential backup.

Mixed Full and Differential Backup

This backup technique creates a chain of backups, starting with a full backup and then containing some differential backups. When a chain reaches an end, deliberately set by a time or by a quantity of diff backups, the process repeats again, starting with a new full backup.

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How It Works on Different Types of Data

Let’s imagine some real-life examples how the technology of differential backups works in different situations:

Files and folders. Say you need to back up a folder in which you change 2MB of data each day by editing 50 files with an average size of 1MB. Backing up all modified files will cost you 50MB of space daily. Differential backups reduce this number to 2MB, then 4MB, then 6MB, increasing by no more than 2MB each day (because some of the files may be repeated).

HDD images. For disk imaging differential backups work effectively and allow saving a lot of drive space. However, calculation of a difference requires to create a complete drive snapshot and therefore requires the corresponding amount of drive space for temporary use.

Databases.Database backup is an area where differential backups turn out to be especially powerful. For example, a typical company’s data retention plan requires administrators to back up Exchange server at least weekly. Instead of backing up tens of gigabytes of data each time, they limit it to hundreds of megabytes and save only new correspondence that took place since the full backup.

To learn more about Handy Backup, please see the full list of backup features of our software.